My Journey from Fatman to 140.6 Triathlete

08-03 Warrior Dash

Every year they’ve been out (5 now) I have done the Warrior Dash 5k. It is not a serious running race, but rather a race with a little running, many obstacles, a lot of mud and fire and most importantly fun. We tend to take the family up for the day and meet up with some of my fraternity buddies and their families. This year was no exception.

I have to say I was actually nervous about the distance. What? Fatman2Ironman is actually worried about a “little” 5k? Well, yes. I was worried. I haven’t run a mile this year, let alone a 5k. I’ve been rebuilding my run, from scratch, which puts me back into the category of “newbie runner” and so I have to respect the distance. For a newbie, this is a LONG AZZ RUN – plus you add all these heart pounding obstacles and it could be formidable. Now, I wasn’t worried about the obstacles nor the general cardio, no, I am in excellent shape otherwise.

It was purely my ankle. It’s been cranky on and off all year as we completely modify my running form – and in doing so I’m moving my body in ways I’ve never done before and therefore it’s been cranky. A 100yard run (done wrong) or even 20seconds of hopping up and down has put me on the running sidelines for a week or more several times this year. So this event had me concerned that I was about to sideline my running progress or worse yet, mess up my Rev3 Dells HalfRev Aquabike (1.2mile swim, 56mile bike) next weekend.

So this year, I decided to up the STYLE part of my game since I figured I would have to walk most of it… might as well look good. So I got a kilt!

And yes, those are official Warrior Dash Beer mugs for post-race ($10 to refill!)

So I found a spot for the family, met up with my fraternity buddy Rich and his son and we got ready to go. Key to that was lacing the shoes on as tight as I could – otherwise, these shoes would be sucked off. This year I ran only with a sword – no watch, no water, no sunglasses, nothing. Au-Natural Warrior… and you’ll have to guess what was under the kilt!

I told Rich and his son to go on, as I figured I was walking. My plan was to jog a bit and as soon as the ankle tightened up I would stop and walk. So with a firey fanfare we were off!

Typical Crush of people but it opened up in a couple minutes and I started jogging…. and jogging… and wow… jogging… I made it about 3/4 mile before I actually needed to walk. Awesome! I picked up a “running” buddy and we ran together through most of the race. We were run/walking it and about the same pace. Always fun to have someone to talk to when you’re at the back of the pack!!

LOTS of fun Kilt-Comments, tons of people lusting after my sword, and plenty of obstacles. I almost earned a few bucks for peeks but alas the ladies were all talk. However, I certainly did motivate a few to run faster… otherwise they’d be right under me on a climbing wall…

So I survived well, I ran probably 1.5 miles total (longest run this year!) and I wasn’t too bad off. The ankle was pissed by the end – but I knew how to mitigate that and did the stretching I needed to do to keep it at bay. I did strain my left ankle a little on one of the dismounts, but it wasn’t too bad.

A few hours of beers, sun, turkey legs, and music and we had to head home…. until next year!